The Seth Jones trade appears to have sped up the Chicago Blackhawks timeline toward completing this rebuild

Considering Seth Jones made it hard for the Chicago Blackhawks to trade him, despite Jones desperately wanting out, it is a minor miracle that the organization walked away with a No. 1 goalie of the future and a first-round pick.

Despite all his complaining, Jones told the front office he would only waive his no-movement clause to go to the Dallas Stars or the Florida Panthers according to CHSN's Pat Boyle.

As Boyle described it on the Blackhawks Breakaway Podcast, the Hawks caught a break when Florida did not find out that Dallas passed on Jones.

Talk about a jerk move by Jones because if the Panthers had found out they were competing against themselves, the Hawks were likely not getting the deal that they did for their former disgruntled All-Star with a massive cap hit.

Hey, Jones is happy to be in Florida and the Hawks have won two games without him.

Suddenly, the Blackhawks have a piece in Spencer Knight that appears to have sped up the team's timeline to get back to the playoffs.

At least that is what ESPN's Rachel Doerrie found out from an Eastern Conference executive.

"You need a lot to win a Cup. To have a puncher's chance, you need an elite center [or two], an elite defenseman, a reliable second pair and good goaltender," an Eastern Conference executive said. "That's a good formula to go on. You can have a lot of good pieces, but if you don't have the key pieces, you're in trouble. The prevailing belief in hockey is that elite talent is hard to come by, unless you draft it."

"It is rare that a Jack Eichel or a Sam Reinhart become available. Look at Tampa. They've made changes, but they don't win a single Cup without the guys they drafted. Stamkos, Hedman, Vasilevskiy, Point, Kucherov and Cirelli. Not just first-round guys, you have to find guys outside the first round, too," the executive said. "[Chicago] have had plenty of top picks and I expect many of those players to be impact players in this league. If they can bring along some of their mid-round picks, they'll be in business."

Doerrie went on to explain how if the Hawks can add another top defenseman in the draft like Matthew Schaefer, that would meet the criteria for the Hawks to be on the right path to contend.

The logic makes sense in that the Hawks have Connor Bedard as the cornerstone center. Artyom Levshunov has the potential to make an impact on the franchise much like another former Michigan State defender did in Duncan Keith.

If Schaefer is added, the Hawks might have another Keith-Brent Seabrook-like duo with Alex Vlasic, Kevin Korchinski, and Ethan Del Mastro rounding a great defensive group. Let's not forget that Nolan Allan has shown promise too.

However, the Hawks might not have to draft Schaefer as Hawks prospect Sam Rinzel is showing immense potential at the University of Minnesota. However, Doerrie, ESPN's draft expert, thinks Rinzel might be better suited to the last pair on a cup contender.

Maybe this year's first-round pick could be used to get Bedard a talented player worthy of skating with him on the top line like Michael Misa.

However, Doerrie accurately points out the Hawks could use their cap space to add Mitch Marner or Mikko Rantanen in free agency. Plus, maybe Frank Nazar could get there and the Hawks also have forward prospects such as Oliver Moore, Sacha Boisvert, and Nick Lardis who might be capable of skating with Bedard. At the very least, they can be second or third line core players.

The Hawks' future at goalie was the only thing that has been unclear during this rebuild. Arvid Soderblom failed to become the team's future No. 1 goalie with a miserable 2023-24 season. He has been solid this season, but it might be a gamble to go with him long term.

At least, the Hawks need to pair him with another young netminder. That is something the franchise did not have with Drew Commesso being inconsistent in Rockford.

Having Knight now secures the Hawks' future in net. It could not have come at a better time since the front office could really raise the expectations with a great offseason.

The Hawks do have the pieces to complete this rebuild in the offseason with all of their available cap space, two first-round picks with one likely to be in the top five, and plenty of promising young players.

Let's not forgot, the Hawks might be able to get another piece to accelerate the rebuild if they can trade Ryan Donato before the deadline.

It would be nice for this extensive rebuild to get wrapped up soon since it feels like forever since the Blackhawks last won a playoff game.